James Harden has been named an All-Star for a ninth-straight yr, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday evening.

That is his first choice within the East after being traded to the Brooklyn Nets this season. He is be joined by Julius Randle, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine, Ben Simmons, and Nikola Vucevic amongst Japanese Convention reserves, per Charania.

Harden is averaging 24.9 factors, 11.4 assists and eight.3 rebounds since being traded to Brooklyn by the Houston Rockets again in January.

The guard has taken over the Nets’ level guard duties with the blessing of Kyrie Irving, and has been named the Japanese Convention Participant of the Week twice already in his brief time in New York.

“Clearly an All-Star, an All-World participant,” Steve Nash mentioned Tuesday earlier than the picks had been introduced. “He is introduced a lot to our workforce. Management, playmaking and scoring the ball, he is been excellent and we’re grateful to have him.”

The Nets have been clicking as of late, digging themselves out of a 14-12 gap by successful six straight to climb to 20-12, 0.5 video games again of the No. 1 seeded Philadelphia 76ers. That is largely resulting from Harden’s work on the ground, particularly with Kevin Durant lacking the final 4 video games resulting from damage.

The nine-time All-Star can be joined by Durant and Irving among the many Japanese Convention roster, as the 2 had been named starters final week. The precise groups for the Marc 7 sport can be decided by way of a draft on March 4.

This marks the primary time the Nets group has ever had three gamers representing the workforce within the All-Star sport directly. Their earlier excessive was two, with Jason Kidd and Vince Carter in 2007, Kidd and Kenyon Martin in 2004, and Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson in 1994.

With Durant incomes probably the most votes within the East and changing into captain of one of many groups on this yr’s format, Irving and Harden have a stable likelihood of being chosen by him earlier than LeBron James, the opposite sport’s different captain.

The trio already performed collectively on the identical All-Star workforce as soon as again in 2019, when all three had been starters for Group LeBron. Durant was named MVP of that sport after his 31-point efficiency helped lead Group LeBron to a 178-164 win over Group Giannis.